Goraidh Cadwyn

Goraidh Cadwyn (Goraido Cadowin), or 'Raid' (Raido), is a fictional swordsman and is the primary protagonist from the anime, manga and light novel, Chronicles of Raid.

1. Creation

2. Early Life

3. Romance

4. Fake Death

Creation

Raid is another one of FazzEagle's OCs who is human. Created and credited as his first official OC, Raid had gone through several changes and developed into the character he is today. He is portrayed as a young handsome swordsman who is typically the 'good guy' in many situations. This means that he would offer his help when necessary and would protect the innocent when he can. He is also notably skilled with a sword and is gifted with great swordsmanship. However, unlike the 'typical good guys', Fazzeagle decided to put a twist to Raid's reason of being one: to hide his sinful past and atone for his sins.

He first started as what FazzEagle liked to call a '2D good guy', where he didn't actually have a background nor a specific storyline. He has gone through the most changes among his OCs due to the fact that Raid had been different characters before (such as young boy in a fantasy world, or a gunman) but in the end, Fazzeagle had officially made Raid a character for medieval fantasy stories. Being just a good guy, Fazz thought it would become dull one day and he wanted him to be a little more unique. After some thought, he decided that underneath his gentle and kind demenour, Raid is actually a great sinner. This concept was inspired by the character Kenshin from the Rurouni Kenshin series.

The story about his swordsmanship and appearance happens to be, according to Fazz, 'funny turns of luck'.

"At first, he was just Raid and no more than that. I could actually put him in anywhere but I didn't exactly have much to talk about him. One day, my friends invited me to play this game called 'Dungeons and Dragons' and yes, my character was named Raid at that time. It was at that point my friend told me to look for a last name and I never one had one for him. After some looking through one of the books, I found 'Cadwyn'. When we were rolling for the stats, Raid was one of the ones with the highest strength, speed and charisma so I sort of pictured him in that way. I quit playing but then I started roleplaying him and funny enough, Raid 'leveled up' quick in the past few months and he apparently was the only other person to have done that. In the storyline, he became the youngest Arena Champion and became known for his rise to fame and sword skills while actually still being 'innocent'. Before I knew it, the character was completely created!"

Raid is also known to be very popular among female characters most probably due to the fact that he is handsome and yet gentle. To Fazz, this was a strange phenomenon that he never exactly saw coming. In the game and roleplay he was in, Raid somehow attracts several females and provoked some of them to actually flirt with him even though at that time Fazz never intended them to happen.

"I was just trying to have fun and play the character as he is. Before I realized it, he was surrounded by women who all are at least attracted to him physically! I remember one time when Raid was just sitting down in the inn, the main roleplay room, and then one by one these women came in to get close to him, trying to flirt with him while he only came for a glass of milk! It was crazy."

Early Life

In the storyline, Raid never reveals much about his past and would always only say that he used to live with his Master and his sister. However, his past is actually filled with tragedy, especially during his childhood. He, and his sister, Lillia, were children to a man and a woman whose names were never revealed. They used to live a good and normal life, but at one point, due to great stress from the Great War, their parents started resorting to child abuse to vent their frustrations. This led to years of misery for both Raid and his sister and they were kept out of the house by being locked in a room. They were fed, but they were always beaten up by their parents during the evening and there are even times they forgot to feed them. The siblings were forced to learn to survive on their own. However, one day Raid found a way out of the room and escaped outside. He tried to bring his sister along but she was too scared to follow, but promised she would keep quiet about it. Raid became friends with another boy, who was an orphan, and they developed a close bond in a few days.

Unfortunately, his parents found out by forcing Lillia to reveal her brother's location and tracked him there. Finding him with another boy, his parents were worried and terrified that Raid told others about what they did. Pushing the orphan boy into the river, eventually killing him, Raid was too traumatized to tell people what actually happened. Raid's sanity started to lose itself over the grief of his friend and he ran away again, this time claiming to not come back. Again, his sister refused to follow, which made Raid promise that he would come back to rescue her. He came across a group of men and told them about his parents, asking for their help, to which they agreed. At the same time, Raid's parents were visited by a priest, a friend of his mother and a witness of the orphan's death. Telling them of the sins they have committed and reminding them how much they used to love their children, Raid's parents cried in regret, unaware of the actual wherebouts of her son.

When Raid returned, he was greeted by hugs, surprising him but nevertheless accepted the love of his parents once again along with Lillia. The next day, while Raid, Lillia and their mother went out, the group of men Raid came across back then turned out to be bandits and they brutally murdered the father before waiting for the mother and children to come back. Shocked, they ran but were soon chased by the killers. Their mother was stopped by an arrow through her back and they had no choice but to leave her and continue running. The bandits caught up with the siblings and Raid got slashed right across his back, leading to a huge loss of blood. Thankfully, right before the bandits could take Lillia away, the traveling swordsman Vann Cadwyn happened to pass by and chased them away. Seeing Raid in a critical state, Vann took the two siblings in as his own children.

Romance

Due to his handsome appearance and kind personality, Raid is known to be very popular around women even despite the fact that he doesn't intentionaly try to get any attention. The first one to actually fall for him was actually Lillia, his own sister, who grew very fond of him and because Raid was the only other male around her age that she sees everyday. Because this was incestuous, Lillia never had the courage to actually tell her own brother about her feelings and it ends up as unrequited love, while Raid continues to see her as his younger sibling. Unfortunately, Lillia was ill at that time but she was able to tell him that she would always love him before her eventual death in the Third Book, Tears of a Swordsman.

Another notable woman who fell for him was Brielle, a female of a race of humans with feline characteristics. Brielle was actually involved in another romantic relationship with Raid's friend, Taim, who had apparently broke up with her because he was pursuing another woman. Though the two didn't start off well because she hated Raid for being friends with her former lover, she slowly started to fall for him after he showed that he actually cared of her well-being. Before she and Raid could become official lovers though, Brielle suddenly had to leave, but promised him that she would be nicer to him the next time they meet. She even promised to give him something 'good' when they meet again, but Raid had no idea what she meant by that.

Another female was Tresa, a priestess of the Temple of Death, where they see 'death' as a blessing from their God. She was never known as a person to show much emotions or any interest in being in a relationship with others, stating that all she needed was her religion. However, after spending most of her time with Raid which started off from Raid's different view on death, she starts to develop feelings for him in secret. However, seeing that other women were pursuing him, she never decided on pursuing after him in the long run. Before he had to leave in the of the book, they meet for one last time where Raid promised that he would come back to visit every now and then, which brought Tresa to hug him before leaving.

On the fourth book, The New Land, after the fall of his village and the death of his Master, Raid had resigned himself from being the Arena's Champion and decided to travel the rest of the world while he's still alive. In the new land, he came across a tomboy woof elf that went by the name of Rena, who happened to despise human males. They would meet a couple of more times upon accident except for one time when Raid actually went to her home in the forest to give back her flute. She slowly grew fond of him despite how much she hated human males but eventually shared with him why she hated them. She thought Raid was different than most of the men she came across and started to fall for him, but never had the courage to confess to him - though she can get very jealous when he's around other women.

On the Side Books, where the story take place at another time in Raid's journey after the main storyline, Raid developed several more romance with other women such as the Succubus known as Maria. As of now, Raid is not romantically involved with anyone due to the fact that he travels around and doesn't stay in one place for long. However, he does come across Gabriella, a female swordsman, various times through out the main storyline and recently, she had shown signs of romantic feelings towards Raid and even showed signs of jealousy when Rena is around him. The daughter of his friend, Vladmar, apparently has a crush on him, which of course, Raid is unaware of. A running joke in the story is people noticing how Raid seems to attract females who are not human like he is (elves, cat people, wolvens, succubus, trolls and etc).

Fake Deaths

During his adventures, Raid had gone through several situations where people mistake him as being dead, the first being after he became Champion in the Great Arena. Becoming a huge target of slavers due to his quick rise in power and fame, Raid decided to move out of the city and live alone in a cottage. However, he was announced to be found dead from poisoning and the city held a whole day in memories of him. However, when the higher ranks decided to check on the body, it was revealed that the body was not in fact Raid's but another person. The real Raid turned out to have left the city earlier by ship, as said by his former fiancee Anya, leaving most of his armor behind . It was not revealed how the actual victim of the poison got them, but they decided to keep the truth from the others in order to keep the arena champions and combatants safe from the slavers. It was then said that Raid died at sea, but in truth fell in the ocean during a fight against pirates before being washed onshore, which leads to the beginning of the fourth book.

In the New Land, Raid once again found himself involved as an obstacle to a group led by a tyrant lord simply known as the 'King'. Raid and his allies all fought them, but Raid decided to go after King and his remaining henchmen by himself. The clash of powerful magic eventually leads to the destruction of King's tower and Raid was presumed dead, leaving many to mourn over him. However, in the end, a hooded stranger came to the rescue of a young girl and her grandfather, fighting off the thugs and scaring them away. Rose saw this and saw that the stranger had bandages around his forearm. It turned out to be Raid himself, who apparently survived the collapsing tower. She could not catch up to him at that time though and her friends claim that it must have been another person, but in the end of the book, Raid pulled off his hood, looking over the city he had just saved before continuing on his never-ending journey.